A paraplegic man walked for the first time thanks to this technology

A paralyzed man who lost his ability to walk five years ago was
able to walk again thanks to a recent breakthrough in
brain-computer interface (BCI) technology by researchers from
different University of California campuses.

People became exposed to BCI while watching the 2014 World Cup in
Brazil, when a man paralyzed from the waist down was able to kick
a ceremonial goal thanks to the assistance of a robotic exoskeleton suit.

But the 26-year-old man who tested the UC technology was the
first paraplegic to walk again without the assistance of robotic
limbs.

The man wore an electroencephalogram
(EEG) cap, which presses flat metal discs against the
scalp that are able to measure electrical impulses from the
brain. A small amplifyer took the feed from the EEG cap and
wirelessly delivered it to a computer.

The computer uses an algorithm to suss out what signals are
focused on the act of walking (or not walking, it's just as
important to get the message of stopping) and ignores signals
related to any other act, such as talking or moving a different
part of the body.

The computer then sent the signals related to walking to a
microcontroller that the man was wearing.

If the microcontroller received signals for walking, it
made electrodes placed around the
knees begin muscle contractions, which then began the
act of walking. When the man thought about not walking, the
electrodes ceased the muscle contractions.

"The guy who used this technology
was, five years after his injury, still able to maintain
brainwaves associated with walking and able to control this over
the course of several months and hold a conversation," Christine
King, lead author of the study and researcher at the University
of California, Los Angeles, told Tech Insider in an
interview.

There was a lot of preparatory
steps that the man had to take before the technology could
actually help him walk. First, he had to learn how to
deliver the message of walking of again, which he practiced by
making an avatar walk in virtual reality.

Christine
King

"In his mind he's like 'this is crazy, this will never work' but
by the second and third sessions he started learning how he
has to think about walking to get the system to work," King said.

She added that if a
person cannot master virtually controlling an avatar within
five sessions, the technology will most likely be unable
to help that person walk again.

The most difficult preparatory
step was strength training because the muscles and bones
were very weak considering five years had passed since the
injury. King said it took 17 sessions to build enough
strength so that he could support his weight.

Nineteen weeks later, the man was
able to perform 30 walking tests, according to the
study.

There's still a long way to go before anything like this will be
seen on the market. The study was only done on one person,
so it is important to perform more testing on different
people.

Another main concern is getting a battery pack for the EEG cap
that will last long enough. The man who successfully used the
technology had to wear a battery pack for everything to work, and
for obvious reasons, the battery would need to last a long time.

King said she would also want to swap out the EEG cap for a small
implant that would be inserted into the brain.

"No one wants to walk around with
cap on their head and pads on the body," she said.

For now, the technology only
works when it's in range of a computer. But in the future, King
would want to hook the technology up with a smartphone or another
portable device so that the person can move freely.